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Tuesday, 8 December 2015

You have agony within and without. (Gloomy start, isn’t it?) Most
probably you want bliss. Don’t imagine (I must warn you) this egoistic outburst
of mine (call it jugglery, if you so desire) is going to give you the golden
goose on a platter.

It’s only a little ‘exercise’ to relax your tense muscles, to breathe a
little fresh air into your lungs, to bring down your ‘pressure’, a little aside
for you to occupy yourself with. Come this far, haven’t you, you won’t regret
going farther, I’m sure.

Everybody does imagine, don’t they? I dare you to tell me you don’t!
Even babies do. Haven’t you ever watched them, yours or someone else’s in sleep
and while awake as well? Sorry for asking. They smile, pout, knit their
eyebrows.

When you stretch your imagination beyond a point, you become ‘artistic’.
You decide you’re a T.S. Eliot or a Shakespeare. You reel off poems and plays
in reams, as quick as instant coffee! One fine morning you find yourself a
shade better than Michael Angelo. Tomorrow you discover in you a Rex Harrison
or a Sophia Lorren. When you stretch your imagination beyond this point, you
rave. Of course, it’s a different world of imagination!

You are ‘inventive’ enough to have, in your repertoire, several synonyms
for ‘imagination’—anticipation, excitement,
expectation, foresight, plan, premonition, dream and reality,and what not. Then there ishunger and
anger, hope and fear, wish and disappointment, sympathy and antipathy, jealousy
and mercy, rudeness and politeness, war and peace, action, reaction, and umpteen other
things. Your may safely add to the list: I, you, he, she, ‘isms’ etc. Sometimes
you do address imagination as imagination, I’ll admit!

Imagination fools you all the time. You imagine there is a will—doesn’t
the saying go ‘if there’s a will, there’s a way? But will there never was.
Don’t interrupt, yet. Here is how I say it: you stop smoking one fine ‘evening’
(why not ‘evening’? Your imagination chains to conventional expressions.) You
stopped because you thought (=imagined) you could. Or you can’t because you
think so. Your lips quiver at the sight (why, at the thought) of a cigarette,
your lungs long for a long pull that fills, life isn’t worth living without a
few inhalations. If you wish to name it ‘lack of will’, well, please yourself.
Wait a minute. Altruistic feelings well up in me, I just can’t stand aloof and
watch you go down the drain with wrong notions. Will never existed. If you think
it does, that’s your imagination. Honest, don’t make that mistake again.

Reality. Does it exist? Only in your imagination. I can hear you
gasp, “Come on, this is too much. Do you take me for a fool?” (Aren’t you
really imagining?) Okay, boss, hear me out, will you now?

Let me define reality for you. What your eyes and mind capture. In
reality, (paradoxical of me, isn’t it?), your ‘eyes’ see only what your
imagination tells you to. Now, now, hold on. You are ready to pay an exorbitant
price for an article because you imagine the article must be of high quality
since you find the shop in the most sophisticated area. But you aren’t willing
to pay even the minimum for the same article in an ordinary petty shop since
your imagination refuses to accept the quality.

I can see you’re really worked up. Bear with me another minute, please.
Thank you.

Take ‘starving’ for instance. Can you define hunger? ‘Mm...’ It’s just a
feeling. Haven’t you ever felt after a certain time your hunger passes off and
you are not very particular whether you ate or not. What can you say now? Again
a feeling. And feeling, my friend, is a tiny particle of imagination. If your
imagination wants it, it is real. Otherwise, it simply isn’t. Oh, my, youareexasperated. I needn’t tell you…

Imagination is the breath of life. Call it the spice of life, if you
like. It keeps the human sea moving. If the moon didn’t exist, there wouldn’t
be waves either.

Think you can stop imagining? If you say you can, you are imagining.
Come, come, confess. If you say, “What rubbish!” you are imagining. If you say,
“Lo! ‘Daniel hath come to judgement!,” I’ve succeeded. Either way, you stand to
lose. You have not only lost, you’re lost as well. Tongue-tied?

You think I’ve played a trick on you? No, my dear bro, ask your mind.
Isn’t it pleading: ‘Go away, please’? ‘Okay, but you haven’t seen the last of
me, that’s a promise.

About Me

I hail from Thamizh Nadu, a Southern state of India. I speak Thamizh, Thelugu, English and Hindi.

I served for 43 years as a teacher of English in schools and colleges in India, Ethiopia and Nigeria. I've published several articles on ELT and of general interest in the USA, Ethiopia and India. I've presented several papers in national and international conferences. I've written several course books for the English syllabuses of Bachelor of Engineering of Madras University, Anna University and JNTU, Hyderabad, for public consumption as well.